ReHacQ’s Nishinomiya Mayoral Election Debate Was Apparently Heated Here Are 5 Key Takeaways

Ahead of the Nishinomiya mayoral election, ReHacQ (YouTube) held a debate with Takahashi-san and the three candidates〜

What is ReHacQ?

ReHacQ’s appeal is that, as a livestream, people can speak more frankly than they would on TV. Host Takahashi-san asks just the right questions from a “wait, I don’t get it” perspective. Since there’s a bit more time, it’s easier to notice gaps in wording, evasions, true feelings, and even people’s personalities〜

It was really worth watching.

But honestly, there were probably plenty of moments where people thought, “Wait, what were they arguing about just now?”…

That’s because the clashes weren’t about liking or disliking each other, but about things like:

・how to get the budget passed 💰
・how to reduce personnel costs 👤
・what to do with public kindergartens and nursery schools 👶
・how much the mayor should be involved in the new hospital 🏥
・garbage bag rules 🗑️

These were the kind of topics that can be hard to follow unless you understand the basics.

So this time, Nishi2 will explain the five points that really heated up, in an easy-to-understand way〜

This article is less about who won or lost, and more about “why they clashed” and “how it affects residents’ daily lives.”

※Some statements from the debate have been reworded by Nishi2 to make them easier to understand. Please check the video for the exact exchanges〜

💡It’ll be easier to follow if you read these first

Nishi2 also summarized the Junior Chamber debate in three parts↓

Summary of “Childcare” Policies from the 3 Candidates in the Nishinomiya Mayoral Election: What They’re Saying About Waitlisted Children

2026年3月22日

Summary of the Nishinomiya Mayoral Election Debate: “Money” Edition — Explaining the City’s Finances

2026年3月24日

Nishinomiya Mayoral Election Debate Recap Candidates Ask Each Other Tough Questions

2026年3月25日

We covered the basics of finances and children on nursery waiting lists there, so this time we’ll move through things quickly〜

❶ What was Nishinomiya’s first-ever “budget didn’t pass” situation?

This was the most heated part🔥.

For the first time in Nishinomiya’s 100-year history, the annual budget proposal failed to pass the city council. How should we think about that?

Getting the budget passed by the end of March was my greatest responsibility. I admit there was not enough communication with the council

If it had ended there, it would have been simply, “Okay, he’s reflecting on it.” But what came next was the real issue.

Before it failed to pass, couldn’t you have removed the budget items people were concerned about, resubmitted it, and gotten it passed? The items that were actually dropped included the disaster prevention app and the regional transition of school club activities. Altogether, it was around 100 to 200 million yen

The council doesn’t have as much detailed information as city hall does. And for budget items like personnel costs, the council can’t simply say, “Cut this and move the money over there” on its own. There’s no time to create an amendment either. That’s the reality of local councils

To compare it to household finances, it’s like the entire money plan for the year failed to get approved. What got paused included the disaster prevention app and some child-related measures

In other words, the gap here was that Ishii-san saw it as something that could have passed if it had been resubmitted, while Tanaka-san saw it as a lack of willingness to listen to the council’s voices before things got to that point.

❷ So how exactly will personnel costs be reduced?

As we wrote in Part ② on money, Nishinomiya’s personnel costs have increased by about 6 billion yen over 10 years. Almost all of the city’s annual revenue is being eaten up by fixed costs.

Summary of the Nishinomiya Mayoral Election Debate: “Money” Edition — Explaining the City’s Finances

2026年3月24日

ReHacQ dug even deeper into this point.

Services for residents are being reduced, and residents’ burdens are increasing, but personnel costs still haven’t really come down. Isn’t this too slow?

When I took office, personnel costs per staff member were the second or third highest among core cities, but now they’ve dropped to around eighth. I do have to accept criticism that it may have been possible to move a little faster. But this is not something that can be changed suddenly after years of accumulated history

It was pretty significant that Ishii-san admitted, “Maybe we could have done it a little faster.” In response to Tanaka-san saying it was slow, the direction they want to go in is similar, but the speed is different

Then Takahashi-san asked, “What would Tanaka-san do?” And that leads into the next topic.

❸ What should happen to public nursery schools and kindergartens?

The discussion about personnel costs suddenly turned into a discussion about child-rearing. That might be part of what makes debates like this interesting.

If public nursery schools are handed over to the private sector, national funding becomes available. School lunch cooking should also have been outsourced to the private sector. Over eight years, the city could have reduced staff by not replacing people who left

When I took office, there were 23 public nursery schools plus 13 public kindergartens, for a total of 36. We’re working toward reorganizing and consolidating them into 23. In some cases, we’re also running private and public facilities side by side while gradually reducing the public ones

Our ways of thinking are completely different. Since fewer children are attending public kindergartens, they should be closed down, not consolidated. After Ishii-san became mayor, he changed the policy of “closing them down”

When I took office, there was no next plan other than closing the targeted facilities. Rather than leaving kindergartens and nursery schools separate, consolidating them into certified child centers fits the times better

Tanaka-san’s approach is “close facilities and reduce personnel costs,” while Ishii-san’s is “consolidate them into certified child centers and change how they’re operated.” The methods are different, but both share the view that things can’t continue as they are. However, the result changes “where children will be accepted,” so this is a huge issue for families raising children

By the way, as we wrote in Part ① on child-rearing, Nishinomiya officially has 76 children on the nursery waiting list, but 1,148 people were actually unable to get in. “What to do with public childcare facilities” is an issue that feels even more urgent than the numbers suggest.

Summary of “Childcare” Policies from the 3 Candidates in the Nishinomiya Mayoral Election: What They’re Saying About Waitlisted Children

2026年3月22日

❹ This was the one part where the mood changed: the integrated hospital and “transitional medical care”

Up to this point, the four topics had been heated Ishii-san vs. Tanaka-san exchanges, but ❹ was a little different.

This was where Hatamoto-san’s distinctive focus came through the most🏥

When children with disabilities become adults, pediatrics can no longer see them. But they often can’t find an adult hospital that will accept them, so they have no choice but to keep going to pediatrics. At the integrated hospital opening this July, I want this issue, along with digitalization and disaster response, to be properly addressed

This is a very specialized topic, and regarding the command center(something like the control room for the whole hospital), I’d like you to teach me. I’d like to study this together with you, including medical fee matters

This part had a different atmosphere from the heated financial debates. It was a moment where the real struggles of people directly affected came through plainly. You might think, “Isn’t it a prefectural hospital? Why is this an issue in the mayoral election?” But since the city is also putting money into it, it really does matter

In the Junior Chamber debate, Hatamoto-san also asked both Ishii-san and Tanaka-san about this topic, so it seems to be the issue he feels most strongly about.

❺ Are the garbage bag rules fine as they are?

The last topic that came up was garbage bags. It was a shorter part of the debate, but since it’s so close to everyday life, Shachomi thinks a lot of people are probably interested!

When Takahashi-san asked, “Are the garbage bag rules changing?”…

The container system changed to a bag system. I’ve heard people say things like, “I only drink two cans, but now I have to go out of my way to buy a bag”. First, we’ll continue with the current method while listening to residents’ voices and thinking about what to do. It’s important to properly separate garbage and increase recycling

People don’t really understand what positive effects came from switching to designated bags. Do we really need two types of designated bags? If we used semi-transparent bags, the burden on residents would decrease, and sorting would be easier too

I don’t know